Building codes exist for a valid reason \u2013 to reduce the likelihood of people dying. There is no such thing as 100% safety, but buildings that meet codes are far less likely to turn into death traps like this. It is the responsibility of building owners to make sure their buildings are safe, or at least that they meet codes, whether bringing them up to code is profitable or not.<\/p>\n
The problem is that codes and permits are often used not to promote safety but as social control, to keep certain kinds of people and certain kinds of events out of certain neighborhoods, and at times, out of entire cities. This is an abuse of government power.<\/p>\n
The answer is not to get rid of codes. The answer is to enforce codes strictly but narrowly. If a building is out of code, don\u2019t force the tenants out into the street. Rather, force the owner to fix the building.<\/p>\n
2) Those who complain about the lack of funding for arts and artists have a valid point<\/strong>. Compared to other first-world countries, the United States spends a pittance on supporting artists. Sadly, I do not think this will ever change. The vast majority of Americans like pretty pictures and catchy tunes, but we don\u2019t like to be challenged. And too many people have the idea that being an artist is \u201ceasy\u201d and shouldn\u2019t be supported with taxes paid by people who do \u201creal\u201d work. They fail to see the work required to product good art and the value of art as more than entertainment.<\/p>\n Most of the artists I know accept this, even if they don\u2019t agree with it. It falls to the rest of us to support art and artists to the extent we can. We need what they make.<\/p>\n 3) Many of us are approaching January 20 with great concern<\/strong>. We don\u2019t know what the next four years will bring, but we don\u2019t like what we\u2019ve seen so far. We feel the need to do something \u2013 how can we best deal with this?<\/p>\n We can go about our business. We can stay focused on our spiritual practices. We can form alliances and friendships in this world and across the worlds, and then go about supporting and caring for each other. We can build the kind of relationships and institutions that promote a progressive, compassionate society regardless of who\u2019s running the government.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve been recommending Pagans, liberals, and others make Trump irrelevant in our daily lives. I\u2019m starting to think that\u2019s not possible, even for those of us with more than a little privilege. But we simply must not allow Trump and his minions to dictate the agenda and dominate our lives. \u201cKeep calm and carry on\u201d worked for the British fighting the Nazis \u2013\u00a0it will work for us now.<\/p>\n 4) Don\u2019t eat the fake news clickbait!<\/strong> I keep seeing warnings about fake news. I don\u2019t know that I\u2019d call it \u201cfake news\u201d so much as gross exaggerations and speculations; quotes taken out of context and framed with inflammatory language designed to get an emotional response.<\/p>\n If the headline says \u201cBreaking News!\u201d or \u201cThis Changes Everything\u201d or \u201cYou Won\u2019t Believe What They Did!\u201d you can be pretty sure it\u2019s clickbait. If it promises something you really really want to be true or something you\u2019re really really afraid of, it\u2019s probably clickbait.<\/p>\n Here\u2019s a good article on how to spot crap<\/a>. Check the source, check the date, check Snopes (which is not completely unbiased, but is usually reliable), consider the context, and most of all, have a little skepticism. Don\u2019t spread fake news and clickbait!<\/p>\n 5) The True Believers are worse<\/strong>. There are sites designed to get you to click on Facebook posts so they get ad revenue. Then there are sites by True Believers: the ones who are completely convinced Hillary is a monster, Obama is a secret Muslim, and the world be a better place if straight white men ran the whole thing and everyone else knew their place.<\/p>\n If you think these people are all about the money you are badly mistaken. They believe what they\u2019re saying, and they\u2019re doing their best to convert others to their way of thinking. They are less concerned with facts and reason than with advancing their beliefs through appeals to emotion.<\/p>\n You don\u2019t have to agree with your political enemies (you shouldn\u2019t agree with them) but you damn well better understand them. We cannot change the True Believers, but if we understand why their followers find them attractive, we can craft effective countermeasures.<\/p>\n 6) For-profit news is a terrible thing<\/strong>. There are no truly unbiased news sources and there never have been. Facts are facts, but news is always presented from a specific viewpoint. What to report and how to report it always involves political and ethical choices.<\/p>\n That said, some sources are more biased than others.<\/p>\n When I was growing up, there were three networks. They took news seriously and at least tried to be unbiased. More importantly, they spent money collecting and reporting news first-hand. The news business lost money, but it was seen as a civic responsibility, and it helped attract viewers for prime time programming.<\/p>\n Now we have entire networks devoted to nothing but news, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They have to make a profit or they\u2019ll go out of business. And they\u2019ve found that straight reporting doesn\u2019t bring in nearly as many viewers as loud, bombastic opinion pieces (which are cheaper to produce than in-the-field reporting) that tell people what they want to hear.<\/p>\n On-line news is just as bad. Aggregators \u2013 including Google News and Facebook \u2013 try to show you things they think you\u2019ll click on, not what they think you need to know.<\/p>\n I don\u2019t have a good solution to propose \u2013 censorship of fake news will inevitably lead to censorship of real but unpopular news. I scan several sources (local newspaper, CNN, Facebook, Google News) to keep up with what\u2019s going on, and if I need more details I look for three or four sources from different perspectives. If I can distill the facts from all that, I can decide what it means for me.<\/p>\n The blurb on Amazon (taken from my Introduction) says:<\/p>\n For John Beckett, practicing Paganism means more than adopting a set of books, tools, and holidays. Practicing Paganism means cultivating a way of seeing the world and your place in it. It means challenging the assumptions of mainstream society, keeping those that prove true and helpful while discarding those that show themselves to be false. It means building a solid foundation from which you can explore the nature of the universe, the gods, your self, and your community while learning to strengthen your relationship with all of them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Path of Paganism<\/a><\/em> is now available for preorders for both print and Kindle. It will be released in early May. If you know you\u2019re going to buy it (you are going to buy it, aren\u2019t you?) please consider pre-ordering now. You won\u2019t be charged until it ships, and large pre-orders from readers will turn into larger orders from Amazon and other book sellers to the publisher, which increases distribution, which means more people will see it, buy it, and read it. This is a book that needs to be read.<\/p>\n If you\u2019ve already ordered it, thank you!<\/p>\n 8) ADF Texas Imbolc Retreat<\/strong>. The beginning of the calendar year brings another Pagan gathering season. For the fourth consecutive year, I\u2019ll be teaching at the ADF Texas Imbolc Retreat at U Bar U in Mountain Home, Texas. This year\u2019s retreat<\/a> is February 10-12. Cynthia is coming with me this time \u2013 we\u2019re teaming up to teach a workshop on ecstatic devotion.<\/p>\n You can read my accounts of previous years here (2016)<\/a>, here (2015)<\/a>, and here (2014)<\/a>.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re looking for a Pagan gathering but you can\u2019t afford to go flying off to Pantheacon, look for something closer to you. These smaller events don\u2019t have hundreds of people and dozens of events, but they do have good people, knowledgeable leaders, and an atmosphere that promotes deep conversation. For me, that\u2019s far more important \u2013 and more enjoyable \u2013 than the programming of the larger conferences.<\/p>\n The ADF Texas Imbolc Retreat is drivable from pretty much anywhere in Texas, and it\u2019s not out of the question for those in surrounding states. The cost is modest, the accommodations are more than adequate, and the experience is superb.<\/p>\n![\"Sharon](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/243\/2016\/12\/Sharon-and-Winter-05.15.16-02-600x300.jpg\" "\\"Sharon")
<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a>7) The Path of Paganism<\/em> is due out May 8<\/strong>. Enough politics. Let\u2019s talk about something really important\u2026 or at least, something really important to me. I\u2019m currently going through the first proofs of my book The Path of Paganism<\/a><\/em>. The draft was finished this time last year, but I wrote it without a contract and didn\u2019t try to place it with a publisher until it was done. So while I\u2019ve been over the material dozens of times, it\u2019s somewhat new to me as I read through it \u2013 I\u2019m happier with it now than when I finished it.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/a>9) The Cernunnos Ritual returns<\/strong>. In 2013 I received explicit instructions to lead a public devotional ritual to Cernunnos. And so we did \u2013 three times. The first was for a ritual at Denton CUUPS<\/a>. The second was for the OBOD East Coast Gathering<\/a>. And the third was for DFW Pagan Pride Day<\/a> at the largest park in Dallas \u2013 you can\u2019t get much more public than that. It was very well received, both among the participants and by the Guest of Honor.<\/p>\n